Tuesday, December 02, 2008

The new columnist is Khaled Fouad Allam. In surprising harmony with Benedict XVI. Both are in favor of a Christian-Islamic dialogue that is not a compromise between the faiths, but an encounter of cultures

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, December 1, 2008 – They did not see or hear from each other, and yet both of them, during the same days, argued for ideas that are surprisingly similar. On the one side was the pope, Benedict XVI, in a letter-preface to a book; on the other a Muslim thinker, Khaled Fouad Allam (in the photo), the first Muslim asked to write for the front page of the pontifical newspaper, "L'Osservatore Romano."

The proximity of thought between the two is all the more surprising in that it is manifested on incendiary terrain, the relationship between Christianity and Islam. The latest huge explosion of radical Muslim violence came a few days ago, in Mumbai.

In a letter to the author of a book recently published in Italy by Marcello Pera, a liberal philosopher and disciple of Karl Popper, Benedict XVI wrote:

"An interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the world is not possible, as long as it is much more urgent to have an intercultural dialogue that explores the cultural consequences of the underlying religious decision."

Khaled Fouad Allam wrote in "L'Osservatore Romano" on Sunday, November 30:

"For decades, relations between Muslims and Christians have involved various dimensions, including encounter on the religious level, although this rarely makes it possible to get to the heart of the matter, to highlight its ups and downs, and often it accentuates our inability to broaden our thinking. Precisely because of this generalized crisis, dialogue between Christianity and Islam must be considered in its philosophical dimension."

Allam sees the explosion of religious violence and intolerance as "signs of an evil that humanity is now living through." This evil has its roots in the "divorce between history and eternity."

While the West tends to reduce everything to history, radical Islam presumes to "take possession of eternity," and in this way "seeks to impose the tragic order of tyranny."

The healing of this evil, Allam continues, therefore lies in a dialogue between Christianity and Islam that reconnects history and eternity, in their cultural roots and in their consequences on questions ranging from religious freedom to bioethics.

This demands on the one hand "freeing Islam from the monopoly of neofundamentalist theology," and on the other "a Europe that has returned to its roots and is open to the other continents."

Here, in its entirety, is the article by Khaled Fouad Allam published in "L'Osservatore Romano" on November 30, 2008. The author, an Italian citizen born in Algeria, and a Muslim, teaches at the universities of Trieste and Stanford.

The religions and the fate of the world

by Khaled Fouad Allam

We are living through a global crisis, and for this very reason reflection on dialogue between Islam and Christianity deserves to be re-proposed from a new perspective. Obviously, relations between these two great religious are ancient, not only because of their geographical proximity but also because of the history of the two spiritual traditions. For decades – in many regards, since Vatican Council II – relations between Muslims and Christians have involved various dimensions, including encounter on the religious level, although this rarely makes it possible to get to the heart of the matter, to highlight its ups and downs, and often it accentuates our inability to broaden our thinking.

Precisely because of this generalized crisis, dialogue between Christianity and Islam must be considered in its philosophical dimension, meaning research and analysis of what can help us to identify the dangers of this crisis, and how to overcome it. It is always in the experience of pain, evil, and suffering that human beings are called to their responsibilities before history and eternity. The catastrophe of the past twenty years, the radicalization of consciences, the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, the return of intolerance toward certain faiths, are signs of an evil that humanity is now living through. more...